Shot by Both Sides

Inspired by an impulsive urge to locate the old military greatcoat that accompanied him through his young adulthood, Akaki, a family man pushing middle age, retraces the steps that brought him from his childhood in North Korea to his current life on the outskirts of Soka, Japan. Through a series of overlapping digressions, late Korean-Japanese author Goto (1932–1999) plucks at the loose threads of his protagonist's life, beginning with childhood upheaval at the close of WWII, when his family was forced to flee North Korea for Japan. As the grown Akaki revisits old haunts, enquiring after friends and neighbors regarding his long-lost coat, more of his life story is revealed. While Goto conjures displacement and loss in some remarkable passages, particularly a scene in which young Akaki and his brother burn their belongings, the plot moves like a slow leak, occluded by Goto's meandering but gracefully written narrative. Still, fans of Japanese literature with the requisite patience should appreciate the novel's appearance in English, and may discover a new author to pursue. (Nov.)